


Wanna Be Numb Again (Without You)

by Toxic_Essence



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Apocalypse, Angst, Canon Gay Relationship, Canonical Character Death, Doctor Dave, Doctor/Patient, Drug Use, Drug Withdrawal, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Good Brother Ben Hargreeves, Good Brother Diego Hargreeves, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, M/M, Minor Character Death, No Apocalypse, No Incest, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Overdosing, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Rehabilitation, luther is a dick
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-13 17:18:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18473512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toxic_Essence/pseuds/Toxic_Essence
Summary: After another overdose, Klaus is rushed to the hospital where he meets Dave, his doctor.Or; The apocalypse won't happen, and Klaus meets Dave in the original timeline. Angst and fluff ensue, and good ol' Reggie still dies =) Everyone gets to be happy for once. Kind of.





	Wanna Be Numb Again (Without You)

Thirty days. Thirty long, excruciating, brain-numbing days filled with nothing but pain and the screams of the dead that surrounded him. 

Thirty days of sobriety about to become zero, Klaus thought to himself with a smug smirk on his face as he skipped down the hall and right out the exit of the rehab centre with a shiny new 30-day sobriety chip in one hand and a wad of cash in the other. Oh, and with Ben practically stuck to his right shoulder, listing off what seemed like a hundred reasons why he shouldn't be walking in the direction he was walking in. 

"Come on, let's go see a movie. It's been a while since you've had popcorn. Or just good food in general. Like seriously, why walk down dingy alleys, let's go do something fun," Ben pleaded, trying to steer him off the path of eventual self-destruction that Klaus was currently walking.

"Oh but Benny boy, this is going to be fun. So, so much delicious fun!" Klaus practically squealed, closing his eyes and shaking his hands with a large grin on his face. 

"Loosen up, we'll get waffles after, I promise. I mean, I feel like having waffles. You want waffles too, right? You always want waffles, of course," Klaus rambled as Ben sighed in response, and they turned another corner down into an all-too-familiar alleyway. Klaus chucked his sobriety chip into a random trash can along the way, holding his arms open as he walked up to his longtime dealer and embraced him, quickly and discreetly shoving the wad of money into his dealer's hand as he grabbed the large baggie of colourful happy pills in the other hand. 

He stepped away, holding the bag up to his face and lifting his 'GOODBYE' hand to his mouth to blow a kiss and wave, before skipping out of the alley and into another. Ben was still following him, yelling about how he should stop wasting his life and trying to guilt trip Klaus out of swallowing each and every last pill in his possession.

"Oh come on, Ben, you've been around for the last month, you know they won't fucking shut up," Klaus said, laughing as he dumped a handful of pills down his throat, much to the dismay of Ben. 

They both knew Ben would have beat the shit out Klaus if he was alive, which for once made Klaus the tiniest bit thankful that his brother wasn't inhabiting a living a body.

"Prost," Klaus said, blowing his dead brother a fake kiss before taking off down the alley towards the main street.

"Fuck you!" Ben called out from behind him, before reappearing at his side and giving him a tired glare.

"Aw, I love you too."

"So, how long until we're riding in the back of ambulance again?"

^.^.^

As it turns out, it took less than ten minutes. 

Klaus collapsed the second he made it onto the main street, startling several fellow pedestrians that were walking along the sidewalk, but luckily who still had the right idea to call an ambulance for the scantily-clothed Klaus that lay convulsing at their feet. Ben stood off at the edge of the crowd that had gathered, unimpressed yet still worried about his brother.

Of course, Ben was disappointed in his brother. Of course, that disappointment occasionally drove him away.

But Ben never left when Klaus overdosed. He cared too much, worried too much about his chaotic brother to ever leave him alone during times like these. He worried that this time Klaus wouldn't wake up halfway to the hospital like he did every other time he overdosed, cracking some joke with the tired paramedic that had just resuscitated him. That this time it would be permanent.

That this overdose would be the one in which Klaus finally joined Ben in death permanently. 

It was the oddly placed care, worry and brotherly affection that sent Ben into ambulance after ambulance, following Klaus to hospital after hospital and rehab after rehab before winding back up on the streets, and on occasion making it into some stranger's house. 

It was no different that night, as Ben followed Klaus into the back of the ambulance that had arrived in four minutes tops to the street corner that Klaus had collapsed on. Ben watched as they took his vitals, an EMT inserting an IV into his arm and placing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose whilst the other paramedic charged the defibrillator, and held the paddles on Klaus' now-bare chest. 

"Clear!"

Klaus shot up, grasping at his chest and taking in a long, deep breath as he broke out into a fit of giggles. 

Another day, another resuscitation, Klaus thought as he pulled the oxygen mask off his face and reached to high five the paramedic, James if Klaus remembered correctly, that sat across from him looking relieved that Klaus was awake. 

He caught sight of Ben sat in the corner, looking both relieved and upset at the same time. 

Klaus decided that Ben's lecture could wait until later, and opted instead for leaning against the back of the ambulance and getting some rest. 

^.^.^

Klaus woke next to bright fluorescent lights bearing down at him, a new IV in his arm and his bare ass sticking out of a light hospital gown, the thin covers of his hospital bed drawn up to his shoulders with his arms resting on top them. There was the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor to his left, and he vaguely registered the electrodes attached to his chest right above his heart and the small oximeter on his index finger. 

Also, there was a minute yet noticeable pain in his stomach, and he vaguely felt the need to throw up. It didn't help that the rest of his body ached as well.

He sat up with a bit of difficulty and took in his surroundings. He was in a single patient room, thankfully, with machines crowded at his sides, a small cabinet pushed against the wall to his left, a door leading to what he assumed to be a restroom on his right, and Ben sat in a chair next to his bed on his right, feet propped up on the bed. 

"Morning Sleeping Beauty," Ben said, his expression remaining blank. 

"Hey, hey, so uh, what happened?" Klaus inquired, his voice scratchy. 

"You left rehab, found your dealer, overdosed again, then scared the shit out of a bunch of people by collapsing on the sidewalk outside the alley. They called 911, and by magic, you ended up here. Doctors pumped your stomach and-" Ben refreshed Klaus' memory before he was cut off by the doctor entering the room.

The doctor was quite tall, maybe a few inches taller than Klaus and had blond hair and blue eyes and was nicely built, and had the prettiest smile Klaus had ever seen. Klaus definitely didn't mind one bit being taken care of by this doctor.

"Hi, I'm Doctor Katz, but you can call me Dave."

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for like 3 fucking weeks and haven't gotten around to writing until now. So, I hope y'all enjoyed this mess that I dreamt up in the midst of a fever and wrote at 1 in the morning  
> Also this is my first work in like months spare me pls love you all <3


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